Page 19 of Magpie
Glancing up at the sky, seeming to become aware of the time all at once, she motions me forward. “Get inside, before night falls.”
She doesn’t have to ask me twice. I rush in, glad to have the door shut and locked behind me as the sun dies. Somehow, I know that he will not be able to pass the threshold of these walls. His darkness would wither in the shining light of her aura.
We stand there, surrounded by crystal and the quiet of the store, each of us waiting for the other to make a move.
“You’re Magpie,” she says at last, making me flinch at the name, but I nod in response. Somehow her already fair skin pales even more at the confirmation.
I do not give her a moment to process the realization. “And you’re his first love.”
We walk the empty city streets, a shadowy pair hidden in the night. I nod silent greetings at the few midnight wanderers we pass, and he chuckles at me.
“Why does everyone keep acting like they can’t see me?” I ask, frowning at the man who looked directly at me and didn’t so much as flinch when I waved at him.
“No one can see you like I do,” he muses, and we lapse back into silence. His arm never leaves my side, holding me close to him, pinning me.
Trying to mirror his jovial manner, I squirm against his grip and say, “Why are you holding me so tightly? Afraid that I might fly away at any moment?”
I grin up at him. He does not laugh in response, and the look he gives me has my own smile slipping from my face.
“Never joke about leaving me. It is a reality that I willneverallow to come to be. Is that understood?”
“I’m sorry, I was only—”
“Do you understand me?” he growls, gripping my chin and forcing my head back. Painfully. I wince, my eyes growing wideat the threat clearly written across his face. I want to pull back, to break away from him and run deep into the night. But that penetrating fog is still wrapped around my mind, making me only too desperate to be held by him.
I nod vehemently. “Yes. I will never leave you.”
“Good girl,” he croons, the approval in his voice sending a fresh wave of heat through me. I sigh, luxuriating in the feel of it.
He drops my chin, pinning me to his side once more, and I let him pull me along. He leads us up a bridge over a canal, finally dropping his arm from around me. I’m unsure on my feet without him, but still I find myself drawn to the water. Stepping to the edge of the bridge, I lean against the railing and watch the stars dancing on the obsidian surface below. The starlight flickers in the rippling waves, winking in and out of the churning water.
Standing beside me, he takes my hand, his fingers curling around mine. I lean over and rest my head against his arm. I’m exhausted and wired all at the same time. Questions keep trying to rise to my mind, but the fog fights them, refusing to take me out of the moment. The few that do force their way through die on my tongue; I’m too afraid to voice them and earn his anger again.
Still, I don’t find any harm in asking, “Where are we?” This city feels strange, different, unfamiliar, even though I have a hard time picturing any others. Try as I might to remember another city, I am greeted only with the vague feeling of loss.
“Ireland,” he answers, pulling me from my thoughts.
Gasping, I lift my head up and look at him, a wide smile spreading across my face, my heart fluttering. “I’ve always wanted to come here,” I say excitedly. “In fact, I even applied to…” I trail off, the words failing me, the thought running from my mind as soon as I speak it.
He peers down at me, unbothered by my disjointed thoughts. Frowning, I turn back to the water, trying to follow the elusive memory, but I find only murkiness.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was saying.”
Leaning over, he kisses the top of my head, filling me with more blissful warmth and growing apathy. I find it entirely too easy to not care about the void that is my mind. Why should I worry? He is my master; he will command my every move.
No!
The voice screams so loudly in my mind that I cry out, pressing a hand to my forehead at the blinding flash of pain that accompanies it. He grips my wrist, pulling my hand from my head, and turns my face to his, snaring me wholly in his hypnotic gaze.
“Magpie, focus on me.” His voice drifts out and pushes the world away from me. He is the only thing in existence. “You are here now, and you are with me. That is all that matters. Do not turn back to the life you ran from, the life that does not deserve you. Stay in my arms, and I will keep it from clawing you back.”
I know in my heart that it’s right. How could anything he says be wrong? That voice calls to me through the fog, but it is becoming a distant sound. Still, something in that warning cry has me pausing, pulling back, even just a little.
We study each other for a long moment. He is waiting, his eyes expectant, as I trace his features. Without thinking, I reach up and pluck the ace of spades from his hat. Turning it over in my hand, I see a shining silver skull on the back of the black card. Beneath the skull, in a flowing silver script, is the wordIrina, with a heart scribbled next to it. Pulling my hand from his, I trace the heart with my finger.
He gently pulls the card from my hand, but I find I can’t make myself meet his eyes. The euphoric feeling is fleeting, replaced by an unsteady sense of dread, like I am teetering on a tightrope.I do not want him to see the warring emotions in my mind, do not want to raise that ire in him again.
My mind is at odds with itself. One side of me is calm, finding it easy to fall into the complacency the fog affords me. That side longs for his arms, fully ready to submit myself if it means I can live forever in that warmth. The other, quieter part of my mind screams at me to turn. To run. I am having a harder and harder time ignoring the looming panic that shouts at me from that void.
